Bowen Law School Gets New Dean

A new dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Bowen School of Law is settling into his job. Michael Hunter Schwartz was announced as the Law School’s dean this week.

Schwartz gained over 20 years of law teaching and administering experience at Western State University, Charleston School of Law and Washburn University.

He says he was first attracted to Bowen after conducting a workshop there 2 years ago. He has a few long-term plans for the school, including finding ways to reach those who find it hard to access legal services.

“One of the things that I’m hoping the Law School will create is an incubator program to help recent graduates who are interested in figuring out the economics of having a practice that focuses on the un-served population, the people in that gap.”

He notes a gap in legal services for people living in rural areas as well and says the school should develop methods of using technology to reach out to people in more isolated locales.

Schwartz also says he’s been impressed by the faculty at Bowen and wants to continue to help improve their skills by collaborating with other institutions both nationally and internationally.

“I’ve been co-director for the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning for the past several years, and I worked it out so that Bowen became a third sponsor of the institute. And this is an institute that focuses on providing faculty development, faculty training in how to teach and how to assess and evaluate student learning,” he says.

Other goals include directing the school to expand its alumni mentoring network while also implementing a program to help graduates pass the bar on their first try.